Episode Report Card M. Giant: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Lock Up Your Daughters
By M. Giant | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 03.15.2011
d FBI agents including Erica and Kendrick, Anna and Jack meet face-to-face for the first time, although each of them already knows who the other is. She blames him and his anti-V preachings for the situation, and although Jack says he doesn't want Lisa to get hurt, he stands by his words. Anna sits down across from him and they spar verbally for a bit about God and faith. "With His help, your daughter's life can be saved," Jack says, like she's so worried about it. He gives Anna a plain, sealed envelope and says he was told to instruct her to hand herself over at the location written inside it. "Once you arrive, the Fifth Column will contact me and inform me where they're holding Lisa." And there'll be no tracing protocols in place to help find the kidnappers? I can't decide which is stupider, the Erica who's leading the 5C cell or the FBI agent Erica who's supposedly trying to catch them. Anna picks up the envelope, thanking him for his help, but pausing to add, "And this God you have so much faith in? I hope someday to meet him." Somehow Jack refrains from saying she will, in about an hour. Which is good because he'd be wrong anyway (spoiler [not really!]!)Anna brings the envelope over to her Ann-tourage and lets a tracker sniff it before she even opens it. She says that although the kidnappers masked Lisa's scent, they left their own on the envelope. "It will lead us to her. Whoever's behind this will pay." Dramatic exchanging of stares before the ad break.
Outside the center, Anna is told by a guard that the tracker has already found Lisa, but there's no one else there. That's one fast-moving tracker; I can barely get to the bathroom and back in one commercial break. The guard offers to have Lisa brought back up to the ship, but Anna says to leave her there for now. No rush to rescue her daughter when there's a big PR bonanza just waiting for her snatch it up. She steps up to the podium, where I guess the microphones are kept live at all times. She gives a speech to the assembled crowd (which now includes Chad) about how as a mother, she can't let anything happen to her daughter. "My only wish is that you welcome her into your hearts as you welcomed me." Speech finished, she returns to that guard and orders him to leak the location. "Make sure Chad Decker's there. I want the whole world to see what happens." Not that she knows what's going to happen, but I think we can all assume that ultimately, neither does Erica.
At the warehouse, Kyle (who I guess has been hanging back after all) is telling the bound and gagged Lisa to take the shot at Anna as soon as she gets the chance. "No hesitation, okay?" He sticks the gun in the drawer of the desk behind her, and tells her they'll give Diana the green light once it's done. "You can do this," he lies before taking his leave. Don't ask how he's getting in and out of here without anyone seeing him. Hell, I'm still trying to figure out how he's getting in and out of Erica.
Cut to the outside of the warehouse, which is swarming with police and FBI and Chad, who's doing a live standup on camera to set the scene. Erica arrives and meets up with Kendrick, who brings her up to speed -- Anna's insisting on going through with the swap and there's apparently nothing anyone can do about it. Just then Anna and her Ann-tourage show up and duck the crime-scene tape. No. 2 discreetly (and again) tells Anna that Lisa's alone inside, so it's safe for Anna to enter. Anna gives the crowd a glance and heads for the door. Chad speaks to the camera in the same Anna-philiac style he's been perfecting since the beginning, even though she kind of grosses him out now: "In a shocking and unprecedented moment, Visitor High Commander Anna is about to enter this warehouse, willing to give her own life in order to rescue her daughter." Anna pauses at the door and heads inside. Fluff it up a little more, Chad, I don't think she's going to be a big enough martyr for the V cause yet.
Sure enough, Lisa's alone in there, still tied up and gagged. Anna runs to her and starts freeing her asking who did it. Lisa pleads ignorance. Masks, you know. "Nobody does this to me!" Anna says, unwittingly outraged on behalf of the real victim of this crime. "I'm going to find out who's responsible and they will be punished!" Lucky for Lisa, Anna always announces her plans with her back to everyone else in the room. Ergo, Lisa takes the opportunity to pull the gun from the drawer, but Anna sees the movement -- and the gun -- in the reflection from the glass of a broken windowpane. Nice advance work, Kyle. One expects Anna to make a lightning-quick move to jump out of the way or turn around or grab the gun, but she does none of these things. Instead, she changes her entire tone. "I cannot tell you how worried I was about you!" she says without turning, or sounding remotely convincing. She "blames" her reaction on her human skin, but then says, "Maybe I didn't want to admit the grasp emotion had on me until..." Lisa prompts her to continue. "Until I thought I might lose you," Anna says. She still doesn't turn around, but she can see in the mirror that Lisa's buying this shit. She gives Lisa plenty of time to hide the gun behind her back before turning around at last to admit she was wrong, and now wants "Humans and Visitors living side by side, in peace." Lay it on a little thicker, Anna. Lisa has tears in her eyes, and so does Anna. Clear ones this time! Anna says, "I know I've never told you this before, but I want you to know I love you." Well, this all seems perfectly healthy and functional, so who could blame Lisa for swallowing it hook, line, sinker, and entire goddamn fishing boat? Anna embraces her, and Lisa hides the gun back in the drawer so she can hug her mother with both hands. Anna just smiles evilly over Lisa's shoulder. This probably isn't over, though.
It's a tense scene outside the warehouse, with Erica and Chad looking at each other nervously. I'm sure no one will notice. Lisa steps out through the warehouse door and closes it behind her for some reason. Everyone looks happy to see her, but when Anna comes out as well, Chad says to Erica, "My God, she didn't do it." That's the kind of razor-sharp observational skills any good reporter needs. Anna and Lisa pose for the cameras while Chad stutters something to his viewers at home. It's worth noting that even while completely unnerved, he still has the uncanny ability to keep his lips glued to Anna's scaly green ass.